Much ritual studies scholarship still focuses on central religious rites. For this reason, this book argues, dominant theories, like the data they consider, remain stubbornly conservative. The book ...
More

Much ritual studies scholarship still focuses on central religious rites. For this reason, this book argues, dominant theories, like the data they consider, remain stubbornly conservative. The book issues a challenge to these theories and to popular conceptions of ritual, collecting ten chapters originally published in widely varied sources across the previous five years. The book includes chapters that track ritual as it haunts the edges of cultural boundaries—ritual converging with theater, ritual on television, ritual at the edge of natural environments, and so on.Less

Rite out of Place : Ritual, Media, and the Arts

Ronald L. Grimes

Published in print: 2006-08-17

Much ritual studies scholarship still focuses on central religious rites. For this reason, this book argues, dominant theories, like the data they consider, remain stubbornly conservative. The book issues a challenge to these theories and to popular conceptions of ritual, collecting ten chapters originally published in widely varied sources across the previous five years. The book includes chapters that track ritual as it haunts the edges of cultural boundaries—ritual converging with theater, ritual on television, ritual at the edge of natural environments, and so on.

This chapter discusses the difficulties encountered in crossing cultural boundaries and in overcoming prejudices and discriminatory attitudes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It next examines the ...
More

This chapter discusses the difficulties encountered in crossing cultural boundaries and in overcoming prejudices and discriminatory attitudes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It next examines the difficulty of writing off political realism, which views conflict as inevitable and insoluble short of violence. The latter part of the chapter presents an analysis of a number of concepts that would counter-argue for the possibility of a hybrid of federation and confederation.Less

: Obstacles to Integration: What Does It Take for the Two Sides of the Strait to Reconcile?

Zhidong Hao

Published in print: 2010-01-01

This chapter discusses the difficulties encountered in crossing cultural boundaries and in overcoming prejudices and discriminatory attitudes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It next examines the difficulty of writing off political realism, which views conflict as inevitable and insoluble short of violence. The latter part of the chapter presents an analysis of a number of concepts that would counter-argue for the possibility of a hybrid of federation and confederation.

This chapter discusses the Celluloid Princess, who personified many of the early issues connected to the anxiety about the racial and cultural boundaries of Americanness. This character was able to ...
More

This chapter discusses the Celluloid Princess, who personified many of the early issues connected to the anxiety about the racial and cultural boundaries of Americanness. This character was able to interact with white society, and it is her violent death which reflected this anxiety and social turmoil that marked the early twentieth century. Thanks to the complex images and cultural attitudes that were woven into the character of the Celluloid Princess, it made her an important figure among the thousands of Indian images that were found in early Westerns and Indian films.Less

Death, Gratitude, and the Squaw Man’s Wife : The Celluloid Princess from 1908 to 1931

M. Elise Marubbio

Published in print: 2006-12-15

This chapter discusses the Celluloid Princess, who personified many of the early issues connected to the anxiety about the racial and cultural boundaries of Americanness. This character was able to interact with white society, and it is her violent death which reflected this anxiety and social turmoil that marked the early twentieth century. Thanks to the complex images and cultural attitudes that were woven into the character of the Celluloid Princess, it made her an important figure among the thousands of Indian images that were found in early Westerns and Indian films.

Certain inconsistencies can be observed when looking into the relationship between musical and linguistic meaning. As Claude Lévi-Strauss suggests, music is the only language which is simultaneously ...
More

Certain inconsistencies can be observed when looking into the relationship between musical and linguistic meaning. As Claude Lévi-Strauss suggests, music is the only language which is simultaneously understandable and untranslatable since, although it would be easy to translate between human languages, it would be difficult if not entirely impossible to translate music into music or music into language without having to alter the original material's meaning. On another note, it is perceived to be easier for music to overcome cultural boundaries than language since another culture's music is not as likely to entail losing interest when compared to a speech being delivered in a foreign language. However, we have to consider the translatability of language to that of music since languages present different ways of meaning transmissions between individuals, which music is unable to do.Less

Meaning

Aniruddh D. Patel

Published in print: 2007-12-06

Certain inconsistencies can be observed when looking into the relationship between musical and linguistic meaning. As Claude Lévi-Strauss suggests, music is the only language which is simultaneously understandable and untranslatable since, although it would be easy to translate between human languages, it would be difficult if not entirely impossible to translate music into music or music into language without having to alter the original material's meaning. On another note, it is perceived to be easier for music to overcome cultural boundaries than language since another culture's music is not as likely to entail losing interest when compared to a speech being delivered in a foreign language. However, we have to consider the translatability of language to that of music since languages present different ways of meaning transmissions between individuals, which music is unable to do.

This chapter explores the efforts of the French government in establishing cultural boundaries in France during Charles de Gaulle’s tenure. De Gaulle appointed his longtime friend, novelist, and ...
More

This chapter explores the efforts of the French government in establishing cultural boundaries in France during Charles de Gaulle’s tenure. De Gaulle appointed his longtime friend, novelist, and fellow resistance fighter, André Malraux as his first Minister of Culture, with the aim of creating a unified community strong enough to repel the encroaching influences of American culture, and restoring the great image of France. De Gaulle believed that in order to advance in modern times, a French citizen should have a sense of themselves and knowledge of their place, as part of the French people, within the world.Less

Culture Becomes Policy : Bande Dessinée as Monumental Architecture

Joel E. Vessels

Published in print: 2010-05-13

This chapter explores the efforts of the French government in establishing cultural boundaries in France during Charles de Gaulle’s tenure. De Gaulle appointed his longtime friend, novelist, and fellow resistance fighter, André Malraux as his first Minister of Culture, with the aim of creating a unified community strong enough to repel the encroaching influences of American culture, and restoring the great image of France. De Gaulle believed that in order to advance in modern times, a French citizen should have a sense of themselves and knowledge of their place, as part of the French people, within the world.

This chapter examines the formal, historical and disciplinary consequences of cross-national influence and interstitial migrancy for English-language poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first ...
More

This chapter examines the formal, historical and disciplinary consequences of cross-national influence and interstitial migrancy for English-language poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It analyzes the methodological and political implications of reshaping a humanistic subdiscipline to reflect the intercultural energies and mobilities of cross-national literary citizenship. This chapter also discusses the role of poetic transnationalism in helping us understand a world in which cultural boundaries are permeable and read like imaginative citizens of worlds that ceaselessly overlap, intersect and converge.Less

A Transtational Portics

Jahan Ramazani

Published in print: 2009-05-01

This chapter examines the formal, historical and disciplinary consequences of cross-national influence and interstitial migrancy for English-language poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It analyzes the methodological and political implications of reshaping a humanistic subdiscipline to reflect the intercultural energies and mobilities of cross-national literary citizenship. This chapter also discusses the role of poetic transnationalism in helping us understand a world in which cultural boundaries are permeable and read like imaginative citizens of worlds that ceaselessly overlap, intersect and converge.

This chapter discusses why and with what consequences prevailing approaches to conflict resolution have neglected to engage many local traditions. Addressing the question of colonialism in more ...
More

This chapter discusses why and with what consequences prevailing approaches to conflict resolution have neglected to engage many local traditions. Addressing the question of colonialism in more detail, the chapter argues for actively embracing difference in our efforts to know and address contemporary conflict. It then identifies seven themes — points of contention that cut across different approaches to conflict resolution, which readers can use as a lens for reading the following chapters. These themes include tensions such as those between the place of reason and emotion in conflict resolution, and the relationship between individuals and society. However, the chapter contends that highlighting such points of contention is not to draw a stark line between West and East or to suggest that one set of traditions is superior to the other; rather, processes of globalisation have merely rendered cultural boundaries porous.Less

Postcolonial Conflict Resolution

Morgan BriggRoland Bleiker

Published in print: 2011-01-31

This chapter discusses why and with what consequences prevailing approaches to conflict resolution have neglected to engage many local traditions. Addressing the question of colonialism in more detail, the chapter argues for actively embracing difference in our efforts to know and address contemporary conflict. It then identifies seven themes — points of contention that cut across different approaches to conflict resolution, which readers can use as a lens for reading the following chapters. These themes include tensions such as those between the place of reason and emotion in conflict resolution, and the relationship between individuals and society. However, the chapter contends that highlighting such points of contention is not to draw a stark line between West and East or to suggest that one set of traditions is superior to the other; rather, processes of globalisation have merely rendered cultural boundaries porous.

This chapter discusses the need to be able to recognize and dismiss gratuitous controversy that shocks the public without asking much from it other than to be shocked. It further states that people ...
More

This chapter discusses the need to be able to recognize and dismiss gratuitous controversy that shocks the public without asking much from it other than to be shocked. It further states that people need controversy in their culture. Offensive art that transgresses cultural boundaries plays a vital role in preserving and not merely challenging aesthetic and moral traditions.Less

Conclusion : The Irrelevance of Controversial Culture

RAYMOND J. HABERSKI

Published in print: 2007-03-16

This chapter discusses the need to be able to recognize and dismiss gratuitous controversy that shocks the public without asking much from it other than to be shocked. It further states that people need controversy in their culture. Offensive art that transgresses cultural boundaries plays a vital role in preserving and not merely challenging aesthetic and moral traditions.

The reach of the Catholic Church is arguably greater than that of any other religion, extending across diverse political, ethnic, class, and cultural boundaries. But what is it about Catholicism that ...
More

The reach of the Catholic Church is arguably greater than that of any other religion, extending across diverse political, ethnic, class, and cultural boundaries. But what is it about Catholicism that resonates so profoundly with followers who live under disparate conditions? What is it, for instance, that binds parishioners in America with those in Mexico? For the author of this book, what unites Catholics is a sense of being Catholic—a social imagination that motivates them to promote justice and build a better world. In this book, he gives readers a feeling for what it means to be Catholic and put one's faith into action. Tracing the practices of a group of parishioners in Oakland, California, and another in Guadalajara, Mexico, the author reveals parallels—and contrasts—in the ways these ordinary Catholics receive and act on a church doctrine that emphasizes social justice. Whether they are building a supermarket for the low-income elderly or waging protests to promote school reform, these parishioners provide important insights into the construction of the Catholic social imagination. Throughout, the author also offers important new cultural and sociological interpretations of Catholic doctrine on issues such as poverty, civil and human rights, political participation, and the natural law.Less

The Catholic Social Imagination : Activism and the Just Society in Mexico and the United States

Joseph M. Palacios

Published in print: 2007-07-01

The reach of the Catholic Church is arguably greater than that of any other religion, extending across diverse political, ethnic, class, and cultural boundaries. But what is it about Catholicism that resonates so profoundly with followers who live under disparate conditions? What is it, for instance, that binds parishioners in America with those in Mexico? For the author of this book, what unites Catholics is a sense of being Catholic—a social imagination that motivates them to promote justice and build a better world. In this book, he gives readers a feeling for what it means to be Catholic and put one's faith into action. Tracing the practices of a group of parishioners in Oakland, California, and another in Guadalajara, Mexico, the author reveals parallels—and contrasts—in the ways these ordinary Catholics receive and act on a church doctrine that emphasizes social justice. Whether they are building a supermarket for the low-income elderly or waging protests to promote school reform, these parishioners provide important insights into the construction of the Catholic social imagination. Throughout, the author also offers important new cultural and sociological interpretations of Catholic doctrine on issues such as poverty, civil and human rights, political participation, and the natural law.

This chapter considers Pollyanna in view of recent ideas of ecophobia—an unreasonable but deeply conditioned reaction against nature—taking the idea of dirt and disorder as matter out of place. The ...
More

This chapter considers Pollyanna in view of recent ideas of ecophobia—an unreasonable but deeply conditioned reaction against nature—taking the idea of dirt and disorder as matter out of place. The presence of the natural world in Pollyanna reveals contemporary perceptions of dirt as disorder and the natural world as intrusions into the domestic. Aunt Polly's desire for a well-cleaned and orderly house and her need to maintain the purity and order of the inside of her house against the outside can be considered in terms of how dirt and pollution relate to social structures and norms. The presence of dust and dirt represents a failure of control over the environment. Thus, cleanliness and good housekeeping become intrinsic to maintaining the social space of the home by instituting a cultural boundary whereby the clean and ordered house marks the difference between culture and the “other”—the natural world.Less

“Matter out of place” : Dirt, Disorder, and Ecophobia

Anthony Pavlik

Published in print: 2014-11-17

This chapter considers Pollyanna in view of recent ideas of ecophobia—an unreasonable but deeply conditioned reaction against nature—taking the idea of dirt and disorder as matter out of place. The presence of the natural world in Pollyanna reveals contemporary perceptions of dirt as disorder and the natural world as intrusions into the domestic. Aunt Polly's desire for a well-cleaned and orderly house and her need to maintain the purity and order of the inside of her house against the outside can be considered in terms of how dirt and pollution relate to social structures and norms. The presence of dust and dirt represents a failure of control over the environment. Thus, cleanliness and good housekeeping become intrinsic to maintaining the social space of the home by instituting a cultural boundary whereby the clean and ordered house marks the difference between culture and the “other”—the natural world.

This chapter examines the transnational career of Alexandre Aja, one of the hot young horror directors who has migrated from his native country to the U.S film industry. It focuses on the ...
More

This chapter examines the transnational career of Alexandre Aja, one of the hot young horror directors who has migrated from his native country to the U.S film industry. It focuses on the characteristic features of Aja’s style and his thematic preoccupations, which have survived the transition from France to the United States. What emerges from the analysis is a reconsideration of the classic auteur’s creative autonomy within the context of genre cinema’s ability to transcend national and cultural boundaries.Less

A Parisian in Hollywood : Ocular Horror in the Films of Alexandre Aja

Tony Perrello

Published in print: 2010-06-01

This chapter examines the transnational career of Alexandre Aja, one of the hot young horror directors who has migrated from his native country to the U.S film industry. It focuses on the characteristic features of Aja’s style and his thematic preoccupations, which have survived the transition from France to the United States. What emerges from the analysis is a reconsideration of the classic auteur’s creative autonomy within the context of genre cinema’s ability to transcend national and cultural boundaries.

This introductory chapter discusses the significance of analyzing the life story of Cnut, one of the most fascinating of the pre-Conquest kings of England. His life offers several new ways of ...
More

This introductory chapter discusses the significance of analyzing the life story of Cnut, one of the most fascinating of the pre-Conquest kings of England. His life offers several new ways of examining late Anglo-Saxon England in addition to areas of neighbouring Scandinavia, as well as of questioning the established norms of how an English monarch could and should behave in the eleventh century. His regime spread beyond the British Isles and spanned multiple geographical boundaries in northern Europe. In ruling these nations, Cnut had to cross substantial cultural and linguistic boundaries, and appeal to local elites in each region in entirely different ways. The resulting regimes would profoundly change the societies of England and Denmark, and ultimately contribute significantly to the end of the Viking Age in Scandinavia.Less

Introduction : On the Study of Cnut

Timothy Bolton

Published in print: 2017-03-28

This introductory chapter discusses the significance of analyzing the life story of Cnut, one of the most fascinating of the pre-Conquest kings of England. His life offers several new ways of examining late Anglo-Saxon England in addition to areas of neighbouring Scandinavia, as well as of questioning the established norms of how an English monarch could and should behave in the eleventh century. His regime spread beyond the British Isles and spanned multiple geographical boundaries in northern Europe. In ruling these nations, Cnut had to cross substantial cultural and linguistic boundaries, and appeal to local elites in each region in entirely different ways. The resulting regimes would profoundly change the societies of England and Denmark, and ultimately contribute significantly to the end of the Viking Age in Scandinavia.